Thursday, March 22, 2007

Why the hatred of Jews?

I am trying to figure out why there is such a thing as antisemitism? What about this one group seems to cause so much hatred from so many people?

They have a global population that is smaller than the population Canada, a lot smaller than Canada. On average they are no richer than people in the west. No single group has been as systemically attacked as they have been. The holocaust is simply the single worst genocide ever on earth as percentage of a people that were killed.

I look to the middle east and see Israel. Yes, by the standards of western Europe and North America, the country is a flawed nation. But when you look at Israel in the context of the middle east, it the most restrained and democratic country between Greece and India.

Israel is also the only nation I know of that is surrounded by nations that have attacked three times in the last 60 years and nations that still demand the end of the nation.

After world war 2 and the knowledge that no nation on earth would raise a finger to protect Jews, what else could one expect Israel to do other than defend itself vigorously? Given the wars in 1947/48, 1956, 1967, 1973 and 1982, how can anyone expect Israel not to respond to the hatred focused on them?

Think about it, first the holocaust, then pogroms in eastern Europe in 1945 - 1950, and the five wars, all in under 50 years, Israel managed to finally get a degree of stability over the last 25 years.

Jewish self reliance has shifted the image many have of Jews from the covering shetl Jew of Eastern Europe to the 'imperialist' and arrogant state of Israel. Israel needs no one to help them, they can defend themselves without our help. The confidence of a people that are willing to defend themselves, their nation, their families and their culture is taken as arrogance.

When faced with a bully, you can either turn the other cheek and hope someone stops them when they see the injustice of what they are doing, or you hit them hard enough and often enough and you do not go down when hit but hit back harder. Israel has since 1947 chosen to hit back as hard as possible - and it has worked. Egypt and Jordan have accepted the fact on the ground that Israel is not going away.

Still, in the west, it is easy to hear antisemitic statements. The left has adopted Israel as the devil, as a major problem, as the oppressors of the Arabs. It amazes me that the left is willing to side with the fascists in the Arabic countries - the heirs to Hitler are the leadership in Syria, Saudi Arabia and Iran.

To get back to the root of all of this, why is there antisemitism? What is it that leads people to this view????????

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